


Ray of Sunshine

by Quiet_Shadow



Series: Women In Shades [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Drabble Collection, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Family Drama, Fear, Fire Nation (Avatar), Fire Nation Royal Family, Forced Marriage, Gen, Motherhood, Poison, Pregnancy, Sad and Sweet, Slice of Life, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 08:07:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25650031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quiet_Shadow/pseuds/Quiet_Shadow
Summary: “Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing.”― Emma Donoghue, RoomOr, some insight in the life and times of the Lady Ursa, daughter or Rina and Jinzuk, wife of Ozai, mother of Zuko and Azula, in 15 drabbles.
Relationships: Azula & Ursa (Avatar), Azulon & Ursa (Avatar), Iroh & Ursa (Avatar), Ozai & Ursa (Avatar), Ozai/Ursa (Avatar), Ursa & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Women In Shades [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1859557
Comments: 3
Kudos: 37





	Ray of Sunshine

1\. Stage

She plays a role every single day of her life, the hardest role of all. She has no choice; there are many prying eyes on her, Nobles and servants and relatives through marriage, and she can’t afford to make a single mistake, less she displeases her husband and father-in-law, less she brings shame to her family. They all forget she was an actress before she was a Princess as her mask slides effortlessly in place day after day.

The world is a stage and Ursa stands at its center.

She just wishes that sometimes, she could take a break and get backstage.

2\. Poison

She’s shaping death at her fingertips. Is it how Firebenders feel when they throw flames about? Ursa has never asked before, she had no reason to, but she can’t help but wonder. Plants are crushed under her hands. She ought to feel sick, because this is not what her knowledge of medicinal herbs should be used for, but… she doesn’t. She only regrets she can only get rid of one threat this way.

She’s shaping death to save a life, the most precious life of all, the life of her eldest child. And that’s worth all the unease in the world.

3\. Pretty

She’s pretty, the Princess Ursa, the Court readily agrees; prettier than many noblewomen. She’s a good mother, the Princess Ursa; she gave two children to the Royal Family and she raises them well. She has the grace of a true Lady, the Court nods.

But she’s common born, the Court titters. A misalliance, even if she was picked by Fire Lord Azulon himself for reasons undisclosed.

A good thing she’s only the wife of the second son, set to never inherit the throne, they whispers.

Ozai listens, unknown to them, and it’s only one more reason for him to dislike her.

4\. Husband

In a small, better left unexplored corner of her mind, Ursa sometimes regrets Prince Iroh isn’t her husband.

Not because she wants the title of Fire Lady, no; she’d be happy never wearing the title. But Iroh is everything his brother is not, and he’d be a good father for her children. She can’t only imagine how much Zuko would thrive with a father who cared for him or how… different… Azula might be with a father who doesn’t encourage her unusually strong cruel streak.

But Prince Ozai is her husband, for better or worse, and she can only endure.

5\. Love

Once upon a time, Ursa thought she could learn to love her husband. Ozai hadn’t been so bad in the beginning, after all. Brisk, caring little for what he dubbed ‘weak sentimentality’, certainly, but he hadn’t been outright cruel to her. Perhaps she had been too naïve, for all she knew how people acted on stage, or perhaps he had been a better actor than she had given him credit for.

Then he had slipped. Then their children had been born. Then she confronted him on letters never sent.

And in his eyes, she saw how wrong she had been.

6\. Protect

A mother has to protect her children, she repeats to herself as she flees into the night, pulling her hood closer to hide the face underneath. She wants to cry and weep. Each step she takes away from the palace feels like a stab wound to the heart. She feels like she’s walking on rusty nails.

She’s leaving her children behind, despite her pain and despair, because she knows Ozai will have no qualms killing them all if she tries to take them with her. He already has what he had always wanted, after all.

She’s protecting them… by leaving them behind forever.

7\. Son

She’s a mother for the first time by the time Agni’s rays light her room. Her firstborn, her precious son, was born basking in the light of Tui, a bad omen for some, but she doesn’t care. She’s too busy falling in love with this little being who came out of her and who rest against her breast, suckling happily.

He’s beautiful and precious. Her son. True, his father is not the man she has chosen, not the man she still loves in the secret of her heart.

But as she presents Prince Zuko to his relatives, her smile is brighter than the sun.

8\. Parents

Her parents are going to leave after the wedding, and she won’t see them ever again.

The cold reality of it seizes her heart, turning it into ice. But Ursa doesn’t allow her smile to falter, doesn’t allow herself to shed a tear. Not in front of the prying eyes of the Court, not in front of Fire Lord Azulon, who has showed her kindness so far but is quick to anger, not in front of her husband, who wouldn’t forgive her for making a fool out of him in front of so many people.

Insides, however, she doesn’t hold back her cries.

9\. Daughter

When she was little, Ursa used to dream about having a daughter of her own. One with whom she’d share as close a bond as the one she had experienced with her own mother. She would have played with her, braided her hair herself, made her pretty clothes with her own hands. She’d have shared with her everything Rina had taught her about plants and medicinal herbs, an inheritance from mother to daughter, grandmother to granddaughter.

But Ursa is a Princess who has no use to sew or braid her daughter’s hair herself, and Azula is her father’s daughter before she’s hers.

10\. Pai Sho

As she is pregnant for the first time, Prince Iroh teaches her to play Pai Sho. Ursa has never played before; her childhood games had mostly consisted of running around with sticks as swords and helping her mother with the greenhouse, until she had discovered theatre and developed her love of the stage arts.

She’s not a very good player, but Prince Iroh doesn’t seem to care. He just smiles and teach her strategies and offers her teas that are supposed to be good and soothing for expectant mothers.

And perhaps they are, but Ursa thinks kind company works even better.

11\. Grief

She doesn’t get to know Prince Iroh’s wife, her sister-in-law, for long. She dies some mere months after Ursa’s own wedding to Prince Ozai. But still, Ursa feels keen grief at her passing, for the future Fire Lady had been a balm to the heart in those trying times since Ursa’s betrothal. Patient and selfless, quiet but watchful, serene and reassuring; she would have made a great sovereign alongside Prince Iroh.

She was the first friend Ursa made in the palace. And so, at her pyre, she’s possibly the saddest member of the mourners after her husband and son.

12\. Firebending

Her mother Rina had been a Firebender, like her father before, but Ursa had not received the Spirits’ blessing herself. It happens, even in the most powerful Benders’ families. Ursa never cared much for it and wouldn’t have cared if her children never showed hint of fire at their fingertips.

But that’s not the opinion of the Royal family. And if her children aren’t Firebenders, then she’ll be the one blamed for it. Fire Lord Azulon’s disappointment would be bad, but Ozai’s… It been so much worse.

So when sparks and smoke and flames appears in their little hands, all Ursa can feel is relief.

13\. Theatre

For all his casual cruelty and the coldness growing in their marriage, Ozai never tries to take theatre away from her. Ursa is not sure if it’s kindness or pragmatism on his part and she’s not sure she cares, so long she can still go see plays with her children, like they do during their trips to Ember Island. Sometimes, she wishes she could be on stage herself, hide behind the mask of the Dragon Empress and recite the lines she committed to memory since so long.

But a Princess can’t, so she contents herself with watching and reenacting with her children, wishing and wishing…

14\. Beauty

When they first met, Fire Lord Azulon praised Ursa’s beauty. More beautiful than the flowers in her mother’s greenhouse were his words, words Ursa was never able to forget. They’re branded into her, because they were the first to seal her fate – and, unbeknownst to him, they also sealed the aging Fire Lord’s fate.

Flowers are beautiful, yes. They’re delicate and full of colors, they have sweet or refreshing scents, and many of them will eventually give fruits.

But all flowers can be poison too, Ursa thinks as she hands over the odorless and tasteless ‘medicine’ she has prepared, no matter how beautiful they are.

15\. Duty

Ursa has many duties heaped upon her by her new status as a Fire Princess, even if she’s only the wife of the second son of the Fire Lord.

The first and foremost is to give heirs to her new husband, little Princes and Princesses to ensure the continuation of the Royal family, to ensure the prophecy of the Fire Sages comes true and a strong lineage come from Ursa and Ozai’s union.

It’s not a duty Ursa particularly enjoys, but she does it anyway. She wants children, after all.

Still, she doesn’t weep when Ozai says two is enough for him and desert her bed.

**End**


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